I retired as a high school teacher a few years ago but if I was still teaching, I would have all my students read this and see where discussions led...
Extraordinary writing and provocative insight here - many thanks for your wisdom so carefully presented! I am one of those who resists AI's intrusion, which grows more insistent and widespread (Google searches now begin with an AI response one has to scroll past to get to original sources). And an Alexa intrusion truly astonished me the other day - on a Zoom call with my grandson in Madison, I heard Alexa in the background announcing the weather, and I jokingly said, "She's stupid!" meaning "that's not my weather here in Santa Cruz." Then I hear Alexa say: "Sorry. Please tell me how I can improve..." -- No, No, No! we laughed (me in horror more than amusement)
I'm so glad I had schooling that pushed research for all subjects, discussions or essays on the research results, and to do critical thinking. It is even more important now that the MSM media is to busy kissing 47's butt than writing the truth.
ChatGPT is seductive. It not only scans instantly a wealth of sources it then presents the information in a very readable way and asks if further details or supplemental information is desired.
When I recall going through the "card catalog" in a library or digging through the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature and this only 50 years ago, I am astounded.
But then I think of how important reading is to knowledge. Nobody who is respected for their wisdom lacks a history of reading. One has to mix sources, compare thoughts to be able to make sense of the world.
I think popular culture, particularly with the introduction of TV, had dumbed Americans down on knowledge of anything but popular culture. Doubt it? Ask anyone in America under the age of 20 to tell you all they can about Taylor Swift and then about Greta Thunberg. Then ponder why there is no American Greta Thunberg.
AI is only the latest edition to the capture of attention by tech. First TV, then smartphones, now AI. The pace of life has increased with each. No thinking is needed for any of them. Use fingers, get answers.
The proof to me that we are addicted to tech and follow whatever tech presents next, it being at least our entertainment and preoccupation, is that now it is our savior.
Every American knows about climate change and that fossil fuel use is the cause through the release of CO2 into the air. Look around you. Are people buying smaller gasoline burning vehicles? No, the opposite. Are people saving gasoline by driving the speed limit? No, the opposite. Are people sitting by themselves in a parked car on a nice day with the gasoline engine running for no reason as they play on their phones? Yes.
Tech provides convenience. Climate change would be an inconvenience if we took personal responsibility and modified our lifestyle to head it off as best we can as individuals. As that old Al Gore movie title phrased it, climate change is "an inconvenient truth" so we await a technology to take away that inconvenience.
I look around at American society and am convinced that our motto is "enjoy!" and we will follow that motto to the collapse our unlimited consumption will bring. Drive more, fly more, do more.
In whatever way AI may threaten us, we are already set up for a fall by the way we live and think, or rather, do not think. We want to be rescued as if by magic, what tech is to 99% of us anyway. We are earning our fate know in general what it will be but do nothing to address it. We will distract ourselves to death.
That's a great piece. I signed up because of it! Thanks.
"Nothing vast enters the lives of mortals without a curse."
attr. Sophocles
I am less concerned about AI per se than about humankinds' tendency to accept the novel without question. Thanks for this great piece.
I retired as a high school teacher a few years ago but if I was still teaching, I would have all my students read this and see where discussions led...
Extraordinary writing and provocative insight here - many thanks for your wisdom so carefully presented! I am one of those who resists AI's intrusion, which grows more insistent and widespread (Google searches now begin with an AI response one has to scroll past to get to original sources). And an Alexa intrusion truly astonished me the other day - on a Zoom call with my grandson in Madison, I heard Alexa in the background announcing the weather, and I jokingly said, "She's stupid!" meaning "that's not my weather here in Santa Cruz." Then I hear Alexa say: "Sorry. Please tell me how I can improve..." -- No, No, No! we laughed (me in horror more than amusement)
I'm so glad I had schooling that pushed research for all subjects, discussions or essays on the research results, and to do critical thinking. It is even more important now that the MSM media is to busy kissing 47's butt than writing the truth.
Beautifully written! You cannot gulp this writing; you have to chew on it. Thanks, Waleed.
ChatGPT is seductive. It not only scans instantly a wealth of sources it then presents the information in a very readable way and asks if further details or supplemental information is desired.
When I recall going through the "card catalog" in a library or digging through the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature and this only 50 years ago, I am astounded.
But then I think of how important reading is to knowledge. Nobody who is respected for their wisdom lacks a history of reading. One has to mix sources, compare thoughts to be able to make sense of the world.
I think popular culture, particularly with the introduction of TV, had dumbed Americans down on knowledge of anything but popular culture. Doubt it? Ask anyone in America under the age of 20 to tell you all they can about Taylor Swift and then about Greta Thunberg. Then ponder why there is no American Greta Thunberg.
AI is only the latest edition to the capture of attention by tech. First TV, then smartphones, now AI. The pace of life has increased with each. No thinking is needed for any of them. Use fingers, get answers.
The proof to me that we are addicted to tech and follow whatever tech presents next, it being at least our entertainment and preoccupation, is that now it is our savior.
Every American knows about climate change and that fossil fuel use is the cause through the release of CO2 into the air. Look around you. Are people buying smaller gasoline burning vehicles? No, the opposite. Are people saving gasoline by driving the speed limit? No, the opposite. Are people sitting by themselves in a parked car on a nice day with the gasoline engine running for no reason as they play on their phones? Yes.
Tech provides convenience. Climate change would be an inconvenience if we took personal responsibility and modified our lifestyle to head it off as best we can as individuals. As that old Al Gore movie title phrased it, climate change is "an inconvenient truth" so we await a technology to take away that inconvenience.
I look around at American society and am convinced that our motto is "enjoy!" and we will follow that motto to the collapse our unlimited consumption will bring. Drive more, fly more, do more.
In whatever way AI may threaten us, we are already set up for a fall by the way we live and think, or rather, do not think. We want to be rescued as if by magic, what tech is to 99% of us anyway. We are earning our fate know in general what it will be but do nothing to address it. We will distract ourselves to death.